In a country that boasts such warmth and sunshine, it seems a weird irony that Germany — yes, cold wet and only sometimes sunny Germany, leads Australia (and indeed the world) in the global solar industry.

More than 100,000 people are employed in high tech solar jobs and German homes and businesses have embraced the 'clean' energy source with gusto.

The irony is not lost on Phil Mackey, general manager of Origin Energy's Renewables and Low Emission Technologies.

"It does seem strange that Germany, where they don't have great solar resources, has a lot higher uptake of solar, but in Australia where we have real issues with our summer electricity supplies and where solar fits so beautifully, penetration and support for it is so low."

Mackey is not the only one left scratching his head in wonder at the apparent contraction.

Leaders in Australia's renewable energy field lament the fact that the industry is in a sort of twilight 'holding pattern' — aggravated they say by a lack of government funding into research, and an apparent reluctance by government to deploy already viable renewable energy technologies.

Research environment 'bleak'

Dr Mark Diesendorf pulls no punches when he describes the renewable energy research environment in Australia as "bleak".

The senior lecturer in the University of New South Wales' Institute of Environmental Studies says at present, there is not a single cooperative research centre for renewable energy ("and yet there are three such centres for coal and other fossil fuel research") — and research groups are collapsing because of a lack of funding.

Wind power station

Diesendorf says while the Federal Government's Mandatory Renewable Energy Target has gone some way to funding the growth of renewable energy industries, including wind power, hydro—electricity and solar hot water, it's nowhere near enough.

"The problem is that the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target is so small — basically 9,500 gigawatt hours of electricity, which is less than half a percent of our electricity generation in 2010, as projected — that it will be fully utilised later this year. It won't even get to 2010, and it means that the small booms that we've been having in areas such as wind power will turn into busts."

"We've been creating employment in Australia, building the industry, creating components factories for wind power in Tasmania — and all this growth in clean energy industries will collapse, because the government is refusing to expand or extend the target."

Diesendorf says while the Federal government has funded some demonstration projects, including a hot rock geothermal project "which looks extremely promising," there has been little in the way of funding for solar energy and wind power energy.

Instead, he says the lion's share of government funding is going into geosequestration — a "risky" technology which aims to capture carbon dioxide from burning coal and then bury it underground.

Diesendorf would like to see greater concentration on well developed technologies such as wind power which don't need a lot of research funding — just the financial incentives to expand the industry. "The Mandatory Renewable Energy Target would have been quite a good mechanism for doing that, if it wasn't so small."

Lack of support programs

Ric Brazzale, executive director of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy, agrees that a key concern for viable technologies is a lack of deployment programs and opportunities.

"For example, we've got a solar hot water industry and photovoltaic solar power industry, but it's still high cost. What we need is to get into mass production to get the cost down."

"The industry is in a bit of holding pattern at the moment. There have been some really successful programs driving the industry, but they're finishing. That's a concern because it's in the context of ever growing recognition that greenhouse [emissions] are a problem."

Brazzale said there is no shortage of technologies that could be developed.

"For example, in the solar area alone we can look at high efficiencies solar, solar thermal, solar concentrators, and doing more with solar water heating, and new commercial applications."

"However, pouring money into research and development is useless unless we have some sort of market stimulus to drive the deployment and rollout of these technologies.

One of the lucky ones

Chem Nayar, Professor of Electrical Engineering at Curtin University, WA, is both a victim and winner in the renewable energy research equation.

In 2003, funding for his Centre for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technologies, based at the University, ceased. Today, he and his research colleagues have scaled down their operations to a research group that continue their work in conjunction with private enterprise.

Nayar says while he is one of the lucky ones - currently working on three projects involving power electronics for solar and wind powered energy systems — funding was secured from the Australian Research Council on the merits of the research, not because it centred around renewable resources.

"In my opinion, the government is not doing as much as it could do. Research is only one aspect [of the issue] and the government needs to come out clearly with policies that will promote renewable energy. We don't have long term policies to support that; that is one of the main problems with marketing these products. The Australian market on its own is not huge and we're holding back only for the government to take the right sort of position — and this might possibly involve subsidising renewable energy resources."

New funds

Phil Mackey, general manager of Origin's Renewables and Low Emission Technologies, would like to "see a recognition that there isn't any one solution. A portfolio of approaches is required. For example, there was a lot of talk at the recent Asia Pacific conference about clean coal. Clean coal is potentially a solution, but it is not the solution. I'd like to see recognition from the government that a broader range of technologies is required."

According to the Federal Government, that's exactly what it's doing. Late last year, it announced it would offer $23 million in grants for 10 projects under the Renewable Energy Development Initiative (REDI).

The projects include a power plant that will harness the energy from hot rocks beneath the earth's surface; solar-powered technology that uses 90 per cent less silicon; and research to identify ideal locations for extracting gas at landfill sites.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Minister for Environment and Heritage, Senator Ian Campbell, said under the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, a total of $100 million funding has been provided, "of which 25 per cent has been earmarked for renewables."

"In addition, the renewable energy industry is eligible for funding under the $500 million Low Emissions Technology Demonstration Fund. The Fund is designed to leverage a further $1 billion or more investment income from the private sector to support industry-led projects for large scale demonstration of low emission technologies with significant long-term abatement potential," she said.

What this level of investment means for the future of renewable energy research and its application in Australia, remains to be seen.